Dec 05 2006
TIMES UK Off The Deep End
One has to realize what a marginal nutcase Litvinenko was, in terms of being a threat to Putin, to grasp the incredible leap in illogic now permeating the UK news media regarding Litvinenko’s death.
Alexander Litvinenko said a lot of outrageous things when he was alive. He claimed that Al Qaeda’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was a Russian agent. He alleged that he had a tape of Russian President Vladimir Putin having sex with another man.
The efforts now being expended to sustain the assassination theory is incredible. Litvinenko was one of 100’s of thousands ex-pat Russians in the UK. He was by far the least successful and least pwerful. He was in desparate need of cash so he cooked up an idea to blackmail Russian leaders, who probably would have laughed the guy off since his credibility was totally shot. But now, this insignificant man has morphed into such an enemy that Russia and its FSB had to use $10’s of millions of dollars worth of Polonium and activated an army of people to carry out a hit on this one low level nuisance:
Security sources have told The Times that the FSB orchestrated a “highly sophisticated plot” and was likely to have used some of its former agents to carry out the operation on the streets of London.
…
Intelligence officials say that only officials such as FSB agents would have been able to obtain sufficent amounts of polonium-210, the radioactive substance used to fatally poison Mr Litvinenko only weeks after he was given British citizenship.
…
MI5 and MI6 are working closely with Scotland Yard on the investigation. A senior police source told The Times yesterday that the method used to kill the 43-year-old dissident was intended to send a message to his friends and allies.
“It’s such a bad way to die, they must have known,” the source said. “The sheer organisation involved could only have been managed by professionals adept at operating internationally.”
Gimme a break. For the price of a bullet or some Ricin Litvinenko would have been dead and few would have cared. The organizational effort required in this case is WHY the assassination theory makes no sense. This police source is either naive has hell or feeding the media what they want to hear. But the larger this gets the less likely it was an army of people out to get one insignificant person. And apparently the size of the effort is gettnig quite large
Intelligence officials believe that a sizeable team was sent from Moscow to smuggle radioactive polonium-210 into Britain and to shadow Mr Litvinenko.
Shadow Litvinenko? How about meet with him so he could assess their status and progress and report back to his boss? Why send an army of people to move a highly profitable black market substance? As reader Crosspatch I believe said on a comment a while back that is like giving an assassin a platinum brick to use to kill someone. The minute the brick is handed over, that assassin is gone and living it up on a beach somewhere. The cost-risk equation is simple – take the treasure and forget about taking any risks for a murder rap.
Lizarde, that’s it: Cui bono? And the answer is: many people, for even more reasons.
It’s a complex tale, which is probably why we are all so captivated with it, right?
So sorry if this theory has been thrown out already, but it just occurred to me this could be a combo of both sides of the spectrum…
Since it’s hard to digest Putin would have ordered this (cost, trace etc, etc.) and yet hard to fathom the amount of P.210 both Litivinenko and the Italian and then all the “hot spot” traces would come from anywhere other than a state (Russia), perhaps Litivinenko had embarked on a “if you can’t beat them screw them” (instead of join them) scheme…
Throw out all the other players and the idea that Litivinenko was smuggling for gain in a black market way himself…
that while it’s the Russian black market because it’s below board, I have a hard time believing the black market goes on without the Russian gov’t approval/gaining (since the wheel and deal weapons of all sorts with bad guys)
And so in handling it – there was an accidental exposure – Litivinenko would still naturally blame Putin for the poisoning…and if Lugovoi were smuggling this to Litivinenko as a part of this scheme (to go public with the Russian Gov’t dealing in this) then it sort of makes a lot of sense for Litivinenko to blame “the accident” on an intentional hit for a number of reasons (protect others like Lugovoi – still get the story out – )
Also, would explain the Italian’s involvement – who purportedly has been investigating KGB and the nuc. black market.
Anyways…it’s an idea.
Also…this theory works with the Lugovoi visit to the British embassy in Russia …and if this were the scheme, it would be a personal risk to Lugovoi (because he would be considered a traitor no?)
Really great article I found at Stratfor the other day, via Google News:
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=281243
It outlines Putin’s early career, his rise and many of his aims.
Clarice is on the money about the Russian state stripping away ownership and property rights, and redistributing profits from businesses to reward loyal cronies.
According to Stratfor, one of Putin’s goals is also to reallign many of the former bloc countries, which means Chechnya could never be allowed to secede and declare independence from the Republic itself.
And whatever angle one looks into, Litvinenko turns up in it.
I think we should all just buckle our seatbelts. Even if the ride ahead isn’t bumpy, it’s probably going to be full of twists and turns.
TS, a good theory, and very interesting.
And the more I think about it…my theory actually does make a lot of sense…if he accidently exposed himself in the pursuit of proving the Russia Govt is dealing in illegal lethal bad stuff – you wouldn’t admit you accidently poisoned yourself in the pursuit to prove the Russian Govt’ were really the bad guys…so go get em!
Also, the friends (Goldfarb, Berezovsky, Scaramella) wouldn’t actually come out say this – at least not in public – that in effort to expose the Russian Gov’t he accidentally exposed himself after the fact – and I don’t think they would say publicly that was what Litivinenko was doing (hence the other rumors of the “paperwork”, etc)
Would make sense the authorities would ask these people to keep quite about their “true” knowledge – even the old KGB in Virginia mentioned it as a terrorist act – sort of – and he is an expert in the Russian mafia, Russian money laundering etc.
(OK, I’ll stop now)
Thanks… Mariposa.
If anything, it’s one that keeps both sides happy!
Does Litvinenko BRAGGING that he was going to indulge in blackmail of powerful Russians seem strange to anyone else?
Anyone connected with TVEL or Tenex that might supply some polonium that anyone is aware of?
Can’t post on AJ’s newest Litvinenko thread, but WOW. A new twist — more contamination, this time at the stadium.
Does Litvinenko BRAGGING that he was going to indulge in blackmail of powerful Russians seem strange to anyone else?
In my new official (::wink::) working theory it doesn’t…perhaps successfully obtaining a substance considered to be WMD straight from a working Russian facility was ripe for a juicy blackmail – I’ll go public if you don’t pay me
OR perhaps the quote of blackmail was the quotees interpretation of “blackmail” – could be political leverage – or could be what he – in a roundabout way – told people what he was up to, but intended to expose Russia really
Or, the quotee could be uninformed really or a disinfo person.
I think I solved that ( NOT!)
Lugovici and his guys came to London ostensibly to attend this game..I’m not surprised that PO was found at several spots in the stadium is they were there. (Lucky for Berezovsky he didn’t let them sit in HIS box.)
” What if Litivinenko was “obtaining†the P.210 to go public with proof Russia was actively dealing in this stuff (P.210) – ”
I actually considered that conclusion independently just after you posted that 🙂
Then the “blackmail” might make better sense. He discovers that someone is selling nuclear material “under the table” (both TVEL and Tenex have both been strapped for cash and would possibly have access to polonium) and engages in a few transactions in order to document it then exposes himself when checking it to make sure it is really polonium (or when giving Scaramella a sample to take back to Italy for testing?). What is curious is why he wouldn’t blow the lid off the whole thing unless it was to protect others. Maybe instead of “luring the killer back to London” he really wanted to allow his cohorts to return to London at some point in the future.
If Boris knows what’s up, he is now in an excellent position to engage in some blackmail himself because it is now known beyond any doubt that the material was in fact polonium. Nobody can doubt now that the material wasn’t the real thing. Boris can only engage in this blackmail by keeping quiet about the real source. Pointing the finger at Putin works because it is what people have come to expect from Litvinenko who blames Putin for everything including 9/11 and al Qaida.
So on the face if it, Boris gets the anti-Putin PR machine rolling while behind the scenes he is bilking the real players out of cash and prizes (or at least he hopes to in the future once everything settles down) in exchange for keeping quiet. There would possibly be two people who would know the real story … maybe even three.
The Israeli, the Italian, and the woman who regrets contacting Livinenko because he sent her so many emails which many of were conveniently deleted without reading (uh, huh).
Yes, tsK9, I believe you have the right angle, excellent. Everything fits in that angle. There is so much polonium around because there is a smuggling ring involved that is moving the stuff. Luguvoi is the polonium fairy sprinking dust everywhere he goes. The contamination of Litvinenko is either accidental or on purpose because Boris wants all that action to himself. If on purpose, they screwed up by giving him too much at once. The PR campaign is nothing more than smoke to cloud the issue and keep the real story under wraps for profit later.
“Maybe Putin did this too:
http://www.russiablog.org/2006/11/russian_mp_crashes_his_million.php ”
Left by crosspatch on December 5th, 2006
Don’t know who might have done it, if anyone other than the driver, but it is certainly another odd coincidence since Litvinenko was investigating Kremlin improprieties involving Yukos.
Here’s another look at billionaire Suleiman Kirimov’s Ferrari crash:
The oligarch fighting for life, his stunning companion…and the Curse of Yukos
By IAN GALLAGHER and IAN SPARKS Last updated at 21:21pm on 2nd December 2006
At first, it seemed a coincidental sideshow to the Alexander Litvinenko affair.
But the near-fatal French Riviera car crash last week involving a Russian billionaire and his beautiful companion may have a close bearing on the death of the former KGB agent.
And, for the same reason, another half-forgotten incident – the helicopter crash in Dorset two years ago which killed British millionaire Stephen Curtis – is being re-examined by British security services.
The link between Mr Litvinenko, Mr Curtis, and Suleiman Kerimov, the tycoon still fighting for his life after the Riviera road crash, is Yukos, the Russian oil giant.
Long before the Litvinenko affair, Moscow political circles talked of the Curse of Yukos – a reference to the number of people linked to it who have died or disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
Yukos was seized by the Kremlin in 2003 and its boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky sentenced to nine years jail for tax evasion. During the murky dealings before the final state takeover, secretive businessman Mr Kerimov, a close friend of President Putin, was behind a rescue plan that would have left him in control of the company.
For reasons far from clear, it never came off.
Then, eight days ago, Mr Kerimov and 31-year-old Moscow TV presenter Tina Kandelaki were in a spectacular car crash as they headed for Mr Kerimov’s £100million yacht in Nice harbour.
Police, who are puzzled as to why his £300,000 Ferrari spun out of control before hitting a tree and bursting into flames, suspected the car could have been sabotaged by enemies of President Putin.
[…]
The Litvinenko connection with the oil giant includes his visit to Israel before his death to meet the firm’s former CEO, Leonid Nevzlin. Reportedly, he handed over evidence about how Russian agents were dealing with Putin’s old Yukos enemies. The dossier is now with Scotland Yard.
It has led investigators to believe the truth about his poisoning may lie in his dealings with Russian businessmen from the lucrative energy sector.
[More at http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420102&in_page_id=1770 ]